Common Paradox Tech Blog

Today, Intel announced and that it will be releasing its new Core processors – branded Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 – on January 7, 2010 at CES in Las Vegas. The new CPUs offer several distinct speed…

While Apple continues to deny the existence of a tablet device, it seems like almost everyone else is laying claim to one. First, there’s the JooJoo (née CrunchPad), then the Archos 5, something from Asus, and now Dell appears to be jumping onto the bandwagon.

Pocket-lint is reporting that Dell is readying a tablet device for unveiling at January’s CES in Las Vegas. Pocket-lint says “details so far are thin,” but according to “multiple back ops sources” the device will have a 5-inch screen and run on the Android OS.

Dell’s only comment: “Dell continually develops and tests new products that extend the mobile experience. We have not made any product announcements and do not comment on speculation, rumor, or unannounced products.”

A 5-inch screen–I can hardly wait!

Image Credit: Dell Computers

A lot of people use location-based apps to find out one thing: Which close-by bars have the best happy hours. But many of those apps include a wide range of other options that often muddle up the straightforward desire to drink. A new iPhone app aims to cut through all the other BS, and simply get you down to business.

Happy Hour App, created by Boomtown Apps, has one purpose: To show you the locations of bars with happy hours. But it does it well. Once it figures out your location (you can also manually enter one), it gives you a list of bars that are close by. From there you can sort by the time until that bar’s happy hour starts, as well as the typical price of drinks at the particular happy hour. You can also see all the bars represented on a map, for a more visual way of finding a place to drink.

Pixel Qi’s ePaper-LCD hybrid screen 10-inch screens will invade the world in 2010. Or at least, some of it and parts of New Jersey. Their CEO says that the first units are going into “specialized multi-touch tablet devices.” Hmmmm…

We can now announce that the first units are going into specialized tablet devices with multi-touch. Increasingly these screens will be super-slim, but some customers prefer the standard thickness.

Pixel Qi will be at CES in Las Vegas in early January supporting our customers. We can’t yet announce with whom we will be showing but hope to shortly.

Oh noes. Your client will be at CES? And they may not be interested in super-slim screens? Then that’s not you-know-who, the company whose obsession with thinness is inversely proportional to their interest in CES. Too bad, but I still have hope. [Pixel Qi via Netbook News via Slashgear]

During the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas, Extreme Networks unveiled a blueprint for migrating datacenters from the physical world to virtualization, and eventually to cloud computing. What’s interesting about Extreme Network’s evolution strategy is that it tries to eliminate virtual switching at the server level, which is the exact opposite approach of Cisco.

According to Gordon Stitt, Extreme chairman and co-founder, the blueprint is intended to assist in evolving datacenters to cloud computing "without forcing certain technologies or operating methodologies," which can be taken as a knock against Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 strategy, Froce10 Networks’ Virtualization Framework, parts of Juniper’s Stratus project, and architectures pitched by Brocade, HP, and other datacenter switching competitors, Infoworld.com reports.

Piqued your interested? Download the 24-page blueprint in PDF form here.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Earlier today, Microsoft revealed an array of new Bing features. The big show, though, was the release of Bing Maps Beta, a reinvention of its online map application. The new Bing Maps now boasts a Silverlight interface, its own version of Street View (called Street Side), Photosynth and Twitter integration–it even has an app store.

Overall, we were impressed with Microsoft’s new rendition of Bing Maps. In an impressive demo, they took us on a tour of the San Francisco streets and used Photosynth to virtually guide us through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other things. In fact, I got a video of the demo in Bing’s San Francisco headquarters. Pardon the shaky camera — I lost my tripod somewhere in the streets of Las Vegas. Be sure to jump to 7:00 to see Photosynth integration in action.

In addition to the video, we’ve included some screenshots of Bing’s Twitter Maps application, which uses Twitter’s geolocation API to map out tweets that deal with topics relating to your neighborhood. From the screenshots below, you’ll see that Bing places each tweet on the map, along with the Twitterer’s username and avatar. You can drill down based on topics or locations as well.

Video: Bing Maps Gets Demoed

Screenshots: Twitter Maps

Reviews: Bing, Twitter

Tags: bing, Bing Maps, microsoft, photosynth, twitter

Here’s a nice holiday gift from Google (which may point to a service further ahead): the company will provide free Wi-Fi on airports across USA from now through January 15, 2010.

Google has worked with Boingo Wireless, Advanced Wireless Group, Airport Marketing Income and other companies to provide this free service. It is currently available at 47 airports, including Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore, Burbank, Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Louis and Charlotte. It gets even better for residents of Seattle and Burbank, where airports will now offer airport-wide free Wi-Fi indefinitely.

It’s a cool gift, but Google also gives you the option to make someone else happy, too; once you log in to one of the Wi-Fi networks, you’ll have the option to donate to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Additionally, Google will match the donations made across all the networks up to $250,000. Finally, the airport network that generates the highest amount per passenger by January 1, 2010 will receive $15,000 to donate to the local nonprofit of their choice.

This initiative comes on the heels of another similar holiday gift; recently, Virgin America and Google started offering free in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers. This option will be also be available up to January 15, 2010.

You can find more info about this initiative, as well as a full list of participating airports, over at www.freeholidaywifi.com.

Reviews: Google

Tags: Google, trending, wi-fi

fulldecent writes “The New Hampshire Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that calls into question the legal protections available to independent Web sites that cover news. The case involves mortgage lender Implode-Explode, a Las Vegas-based site launched in 2007 that publishes stories about the meltdown of the mortgage industry. Associate Justice Carol Ann Conboy pressed the point with [defense lawyer Jeremy Eggleton], questioning, ‘Can anyone who posts a blog be considered a reporter,’ for the purposes of claiming protection of anonymous sources? Eggleton answered yes, within limits: ‘The test is whether the person has an intention to gather, analyze and disseminate.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Never underestimate the dollar power of shoes and handbags. Amazon, in a move to expand diversity in its product line, last July moved to acquire Zappos, a purveyor of shoes, bags and clothing. Now that the deal is finally closing, and Zappos’s stock has risen on the news of the buyout, Amazon has agreed to make the purchase for $1.2 billion, up from the initial stock price-based estimate of $928 million.

Zappos remains intact after the deal–a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, with headquarters in Las Vegas. No changes in Zappos’s management team are expected.

Image Credit: Amazon, Zappos

It’s coming–kind of, sort of. Clearwire, Comcast and Sprint plan to bring us 4G mobile broadband service in the next several weeks, provided we’re lucky enough to live in one of the few locations that will initially be blessed with the service; locations that seem connected by virtue of their being disconnected.

According to Clearwire’s press release all three providers will have service available in more than 25 markets, covering over 30 million people. Checking out coverage maps there’s not a whole lot to get excited about. Much of Clearwire and Sprint’s coverage, geographically, is in suburban Texas. The only cities, and I use the term loosely, are Las Vegas, Boise, Atlanta, Portland, and Seattle. The only efforts to tackle legitimate urban areas are Chicago and Philadelphia.

So, if you happen to live in Milledgeville, Georgia, population 18,757, you’ve got Sprint’s 4G service waiting for you. But, if you live in Los Angeles, California, population 3,834,340, you’re out of luck.

Image Credit: Clearwire